Stan Van Gundy went "Office Space" on Dwight Howard and the Magic Thursday. (Getty Images)


You either have or will have a problem at work. This is just what happens in our day-to-day life. Personalities clash. Some more than others. Agendas complicate things, perceptions get in the way of relationships, and anytime you deal with people in a professional environment, often times who did not choose to work with one another, there will be conflict at some point, somewhere.

But sometimes things get worse than usual. Sensitive circumstances create behind-the-scenes movement, backstabbing, power plays, and the like. It's unfortunate, but it's part of it. And sometimes you wind up working in a situation that becomes so bad, the paycheck is no longer worth it. Where you feel like the situation has pushed you beyond the responsibilities you hold to act in the best interest of the company. It's a breaking point.

Stan Van Gundy found his breaking point this week.

He's put up with the impressions, the media frenzy, the rumors. He's put up with the wishy-washy nature, the requests to play with players who really arent that good and are poor fits on the team. He's put up with Howard's flip-flop-then-re-flip-flop-then-re-re-flip-flop at the trade deadline. And when management informed him that Dwight Howard wanted him fired, something he can do nothing about and he knows it, he was fine with that, too.

But he wasn't going to go out and lie about it.

He wasn't going to go out and deny a report about what happened, about a move to undermine his authority to do his job. He came out, stated what happened, gave zero indication that he was leaving or wouldn't do his job or that he was mad at Howard.

Then he walked away.

Sometimes the paycheck's not worth it.

The response of course is that Van Gundy will still get paid the remainder of his contract. That's how these things work. But in terms of staying with a superstar that can help keep your salary high, in terms of getting a raise, in terms of the stability implicit in keeping your job? Wasn't worth it.

So he fired when ready.

In the interview, Van Gundy talked about the only thing he was uncomfortable with is... manure, so to speak. But that's what he's dealt with for his entire season. Howard and his agent and his management and his people all wanting this, that, and the other in one, long, continuous parade of nonsense.

Dwight Howard is not the first or the last superstart to ask for a coach to be fired. Happens all the time. But they don't drag a franchise, a team, a coach through this for as long as Howard has.

And as far as SVG walking away? That was him being done with the scene, not going to play it out in front of the cameras. He gets to do that. If Howard's not going to man up and say what he really wants and continue to get people to try and like him while he's yanking his coach's seat out from underneath him, the same coach that made him into a DPOY and MVP candidate? Then SVG has no responsibility to sit there and play out some prepostrous scene with him. He answered the questions, he did his job.

It's painfully obvious he likely won't be doing it for much longer. But today Van Gundy did what he felt he had to do. He's a good coach in this league. And should the Magic elect to fire him (which is no guarantee considering how nuts their decision making has been over the past year), he'll get another job.

The Magic will have to move on to some coach who will do what Howard wants, who will play who and how Howard wants, who Howard can feel loved by and connected with. Maybe they'll get a coach that will take them to the title. Howard's certainly talented enough. Either way, in that scenario, it won't be Van Gundy dealing with his whims. Which might be for the best.

At least he'll be out of the circus that Dwight Howard forced him into.